The List

Wow, did a tumbleweed just blow past?

*blows off dust*

Okay, you all know you have one. Here's my current Top Five - well, let's make it Ten - no particular order:

• Paul McGann (of course - you all know me)
• Robert Downey Jr. (I don't care how many times he's f*cked up his life, he's adorable)
• Johnny Depp (again, of course)
  
• Viggo Mortensen (but he may be dropping off the list soon)
• Bradley Whitford (especially if he came with the writers too)
• Nathan Fillion (yep)
  
• Daniel Craig (the only Bond who actually looked like he killed people for a living)
• Ben Browder (not initially my type, but Crighton grew on me)
  
• Julian Rhind-Tutt (cute as a puppy)
• Alan Davies (the most realistic on the list, and mostly because he's just sweet)

The Gay List (as in, if I was ever gay, they'd be my type):

• Jennifer Tilly
  
• Drew Barrymore
• Toni Collette
• Renee Zelwiger
  
• Theda Bara (back then of course, not the corpse she is now, what do you take me for?)

Trawlers suck

Whoever that was who just left what looked like a randomly-generated NOVEL as a comment to one of my posts - fyi, I've changed my settings so only registered users can leave comments.

This means that anyone who wants to leave a comment now has to register. I didn't want to do that, but now I've been forced into it. I apologize to any honest people who would rather not register.

Oh, and Trawler? I hope you meet with a slow, painful demise.

Yes... Spring!

It's gorgeous out! It really is - it's crazy beautiful out there. Sunny, warm, a bit windy but that's okay. So of course I'm inside.

Yep, this weekend I vacuumed and shampooed the carpet. Not the stairs though, so they're still a mess, but that's a project for another day. I actually feel like I need to get rid of a piece of furniture - a chair specifically, and maybe an end table as well - but I like them too much, and I also like the extra seating.

Oh, and I bought a robot.

I've been lazy about my photography though, my 365 Days and Photogamer entries are sadly lacking...

Spring?

You wouldn't know it was spring last week, it's still pretty cold here BUT it's warm today, it's supposed to hit 10 on Monday, bring it on!

So on that note, I'm cleaning. I'm taking a few minutes to sit with a hot chocolate and actually update this thing. You can see the carpet in the living room! You can't see what colour it is yet, of course, but I'm getting there! I've even got oven cleaner bubbling in the, um, oven. I think I'll finish straightening up the living room today, then let the vacuum run for a while, see how it does. I'll probably have to do it four or five times before I can do a carpet shampoo, but it'll be worth it when it's finally done...

Midnight ponderings

I hate Daylight Savings. I think it's a stupid idea in the first place, so I find it even more stupid that we've had to change our dates around just because the Americans are changing theirs.

As a result of this, I'm wide awake when I should be asleep, and my mind is racing.

I was doing a bit of a spring cleaning on the Metatron™ the other night and came across my MSN logs - yes, I've got my IM software set to log my chats, because sometimes a connection might be lost and you want to know what was missed, etc. Anyway, I stumbled upon one from almost two years ago, a very late night chat with a very dear friend, and I suddenly realized I hadn't seen them in a very very long time and I almost cried, to think I'd let so long pass without keeping in touch.

What do I plan to do about this? I'm not sure. I've sent them a message to see if they remember that particular discussion - did you know pizza is actually sliced with old pizza? maybe you had to be there - and I'll see what they say.

Oh, in other news I've picked up a partially finished scarf I was working on, probably around the same time, and I'm determined to have it done before scarves aren't needed anymore this year. I'm hoping that'll be within the next two weeks, but the way the weather is going out there it might be June before we see the end of the snow.

Progress

Well, it's been a little more than two weeks since I last posted. I think I'm doing well. On my to-do list from my finance guy:

• I've added extra to my RRSPs (although for some reason I'm going to get less back on my tax return - must be to do with the lower PST, maybe I should have payroll deduct more from me?)
  
• I've got my line of credit up and running
  
• I've paid off my M/C via my LoC
  
• I've set up an automatic payment schedule for the LoC
  
• I've been updating my excel file of my outgoing cash (which I've been doing without changing my spending habits so far, so it'll be an accurate reflection of my lack of self-control)
  
• Started a change jar (well, it's really a miniature recycling bin from Solutions *grin*)
  

Haven't switched from Sympatico to Rogers, and haven't cancelled my home phone, but that's a pretty good start, isn't it?

Anyway, I feel like I've accomplished a lot, and it makes me feel like I should do more. So I also decided to expand a bit artistically (well, as far as that goes anyway) so I've joined both Photogamer and 365 Days on Flickr, and though I've missed a few days here and there, I've been doing well, and it makes me happy. Let's see how I do...

February...

Well, the bruise is almost gone from my left knee, and the coral mark on my right knee isn't but is at least settling down to being just a mark. And I'm almost done peeling - which really wasn't so much peeling as flaking, I've been topping up the world's supply of dust *grin*

So yeah, settling back in. Finishing my Extermaknit Dalek (just have the base left!), watching new Torchwood (sooo much better than last season) and Lost (ditto).

So what else is new? Um, darts has been good, in fact I won my singles 401 lastnight, which was very cool! Joined the Flickr 365 Days pool, so let's see if I can keep this up.

Valentine's Day was nice, we stayed in and watched Down With Love and ate lasagna and chocolate lava cakes, mmm...

Oh, last Friday T and I went to see In Bruges, which was pretty cool - better than I was expecting actually.

Oh oh, two weeks ago I went to see my finance guy - I have a number of things to do now.

• Top up my RRSP contribution before the end of the month
• Reactivate my line of credit (which is annoying, as it means I have to go up to the Queen & Yonge branch during their work hours of 2:15 and 2:30 - okay, slight exaggeration, but still, I have a job, you know?)
• Pay off my M/C with my line of credit
• Set up automatic payments into my line of credit
• Keep track of my purchases - every little penny
• Switch from Sympatico to Rogers - maybe I can get a deal?
• Cancel my home phone - Bell has made enough money off me, thank you
• Put all of my change in a jar

I've started actually, I set up an excel file and I'm watching every penny - but I'm not changing my habits yet, if I want to be honest with myself I have to watch it properly. It's amazing how much money has gone into bills over the past two weeks...

Mexico - a week away

Okay, I've decided I'm just going to give you a quick precis of the trip, rather than post forever and ever.

J*'s luggage got held back by Mexican customs, and arrived about 36 hours later - it had been opened, and clothing, toiletries and her straightening iron were missing! The thieves (yes, they were thieves, doesn't matter that they were thieving in their jobs) thought a hoochie-mama shirt and tacky bag would be a good trade though and provided those. Lesson: never put anything you'd cry if you lost in your suitcase! Luckily she hadn't, but it was still irritating.

The resort was just vast, really huge - we didn't see the whole thing while we were there. The architecture was really sleek and modern (heard someone complaining that it was 'cold' but really it was really stunning). The rooms were great - don't splash out on the ultra huge suite, the regular ones are like half an apartment as they are. Bathrooms in the suites are amazing - my dream bathroom would be modelled after them I think, with the addition of a linen closet, really. Double jacuzzi, mmm...

The beach was a bit rockier than other places I've been, there's a lot of coral there, so I was glad I got swim shoes for L and I before we went down. Didn't stop me from bashing my knee on a rock and cutting my ankle though, but it wasn't bad - the snorkeling was pretty cool and the waterproof camera case worked really well (check out the pix on my flickr Mexico set).

Lessee, how did we fill our week? Well, on Sunday J* and I went for a 'tour' of the Lapis Jewelry Company to see how it's made - this consisted of a couple of people behind glass looking downwards and then a huge showroom of overpriced, mostly gaudy crap. Not only did I not see anything being made, I also didn't see anything I'd want. Luckily we hadn't paid anything except a $2 tip to our driver. To be honest, there was a Lapis store right at the resort with nicer stuff (still overpriced) and another one within the complex our resort was in (I got a silver ring with a huge red Cubic Zirconia stone in it for $30, I'm happy with that).

L and I spent Monday on a day-long bus trip that took us to the Ik-Kil GeoArchaeological Park and Blue Cenote and then on to Chichen Itza. This was a really cool trip, and I'm glad I took it - I wish I'd used the washroom on the bus before getting to the cenote though, there wasn't enough time to swim in it! And you're not allowed to climb the castillo anymore at Chichen Itza, only the observatory. Ah well, next time I'll go to Coba. I bought a t-shirt for my Dad there, a tour/photo book of the site and an oddly-framed collection of Mayan designs, no idea how I'm going to display it.

On Tuesday evening J* & P & I went into Playa del Carmen to do some shopping (yup, it's all about the shopping with us - L stayed on the resort and lounged). Two things have I discovered. a) Playa has lots of cool shops that all play great music, and 2) I need to lose weight. Anyway, I got a ring for my Mum and one for myself (both with twilight topaz, mine in white gold with diamonds and hers in silver) and some gifty things. Playa's beautiful at night, we could see the cruise ships off in the distance.

On Wednesday J* & P & I spend the daylight hours at Xel-Ha (poor L doesn't snorkel so he stayed behind again - either I've got to get him snorkeling or someone else has to join with us next time!). What a great place! Iguanas everywhere, stingrays and conches and macaws, oh my! Just beautiful. Nice hiking too, L would have liked that part I think. Finally found a t-shirt for myself I liked (Huh - guardian of the earth).

Thursday and Friday I didn't venture off the resort, although we got an interesting surprise on Thursday - mice! Yep, a pregnant mouse decided the blanket on one of our beds would make a good nest and chewed a huge hole in it - left a couple of baby mice behind too. Freaked me out just a bit - but they came and cleaned everything up really well so we didn't try to get another room.

Other highlights of the trip:

• bacon, hashbrowns and pains au chocolate every morning
• the adventures of the Dude clan
• swimming with squid
• lazy river tubing
• crocheting an octopus
• watching Torchwood with Spanish subtitles (the commercials for it were fun too)
• new friends from Alberta and Ottawa
• the margaritas in the main bar
• updating 'the list'

...but I'm glad to be back!

I'm back and I'm tan! Well, slighly more beige...

That's right, I'm back! The week before the trip I was way too busy to even glance at my blog, let alone update it, and while I was gone I wasn't going to jump on here *grin* so here I am!

Saturday January 19th: Woke up at stupid o'clock (around 3AM I think?) so L's father could drive us to the airport. Glad we did too, not too bad when we got there but the whole city came in after us! The flight was okay, Rush Hour 3 was the flick (didn't bother with that to be honest) so we all tried to get some sleep. Well, tried - a couple of people on the flight were FAR TOO EXCITED about the trip. No sleep for me. Bus ride from the airport to the hotel took about 45 minutes longer than it should have as they had to stop and buy more cheap Corona to get the stupid people who were going to an all-inclusive place to buy from them at a crazy markup. I got a bit of sleep on the way.

more to come...

Goodbye hair!

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday (well, not really forgot so much as deliberately didn't mention it so as to not give it away to L before seeing him!) - I got my hair cut! Took off about three inches or so, the girls at work almost cried like I'd gone on What Not To Wear or something, they said it took ten years off me *grin* I've got a sort of layered bob now, really nice.

I'm happy. BTW, if you're in downtown Toronto and you want a good cut, Harry's my guy and he totally rocks...

And in an unrelated story, I just finished water-testing my waterproof diving case for my digital camera - no leaks, all good! I bought it via Amazon.com rather than locally - hey, I'm all for supporting local business, but the $180 difference in price was a bit too much to deal with. I'm really happy I finally got it, as I'm going to spend the entire week in Mexico snorkeling and I want better pix this time...

Oh, didn't I mention, we're going to Mexico! Yup, a week at Grand Sirenis Mayan Beach in Akumal - snorkeling, swim-up bar, double jacuzzis, seven a-la-carte restaurants, old crumbly buildings (remember how I love those?) - it'll be hard to come back! I got my own snorkel and mask this time, no more borrowed snorkels (eew)...

This week

...has been an interesting one. Work-wise it's been relatively quiet, and good thing too - IT finally came through with their promise from two years ago to get me a new computer. See, I got that damned Aurora/Nail virus (may its creator rot in pestilential hell) and, as you no doubt know, it can't be removed - you've gotta wipe your entire hard drive and reinstall windows (I'd like to point out that at home I'm on a Mac - an iMac Intel Core Duo to be precise, named Metatron - and I love it dearly).

So because of the virus they couldn't simply mirror my computer, they had to reinstall everything. Of course they missed stuff, and we've spent this entire week trying to figure out what. And also, since it was a fresh install and not a transfer of data, all of my preferences are still on the old computer, as is my work iTunes library, gah!

Anyway, I'm glad it was quiet.

New DVDs for 2007! L got me SNL Season 2 and Dead Like Me Season 2 for my birthday, how sweet! I haven't started watching them yet though, not seriously - I dipped into SNL - as I got so many DVDs for Xmas! I'll list those soon.

Oh, and on top of that, we went to see Juno on Thursday night - which was just amazing, I adored it. Can't recommend it enough. Ellen Page is fantastic.

Twenty-Aught-Eight!

Yeah, I suck, I haven't posted since LAST YEAR! Three months, gah.

So anyway. Today I am 38. People keep asking me if I feel old. Well, yes I do, but not any more so than I did yesterday. But it's not just old, it's prematurely old, that's how I feel. Aches and pains and grey hairs and all that, when I can't possibly even be a proper adult yet.

The house is a disaster. But I'm buggered if I'm cleaning it on my birthday, when I won't clean it on other days. *sigh*

Okay, I'll have to do a proper post later. I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but if I did, posting properly would be one of them. Also I'm sure I have a bunch of stuff in post purgatory waiting for their ascension, I'll check on that...

October!

I love Autumn, but it still feels quite summery. So today I’m wearing a skirt and a new top, which I bought at The Clothing Show this weekend. It’s black and yet colourful. I’m all paradoxy, me.

Okay, so the past couple of weeks have been hectic, lots of visitors! Got filmed at City Hall during an evacuation drill, giving opinions on a car makeover for a new Slice show (The List I think, hasn’t started yet). Went to dinner at The Rivoli and for drinks at Wide Open with T&R and J*&P and a few others, that was quite fun! I had FOUR chocolate martinis that night, twice my usual limit! Went to The Clothing Show and bought dresses and tops and jewellry and purses, prrrrr... Had dinner with C&C and a bewildering variety of Bowlies and quasi-Bowlies, then attempted to do Nuit Blanche. Actually, that turned out to be Nuit Blech - I probably won’t bother with it next year.

Oh, and I’m almost finished my Clapotis!

Photos on Flickr soon, I promise!

Keeping up (with the Joneses)

Okay, so I’m going to try to keep this up a bit better. That means not leaving things in Draft purgatory for so long. I think I’ll try to post directly and then update as needed, rather than making drafts and then finalizing them.

So what’s happened in my life since last week? Well, had a few friends in visiting last week so we all went for dinner, that was nice. Saw a bit of the filming going on downtown for the new Hulk movie. Shook hands with Brian Mulroney last week at a corporate event. Went to a Stag & Doe in Welland and chatted with nice people. Bought a DVD (The Lost Room). Stressed over what to wear to a wedding that’s in two weeks’ time. Tidied only the tiniest little bit.

So not much really.

I’ve been feeling okay lately too. I mean, I’m out of shape and all, but in a pretty good mood most of the time. Which is nice.

Oh, and last week there were no-apparent-reason fireworks at The Docks, which can be viewed quite easily from my place, so I took pictures and they turned out quite nicely (see my Flickr page).

*sigh* I'm back

Okay guys, I'm back. I've been gone, yes, I admit it. Well, when I say gone, I mean I've been right here all this time, but too lazy to update my blog. I have a number of posts in limbo, and I should really rescue them, but this is just a little flare to let you know I'm still around!

What's happened over the past few months? Well, lessee. Had my deck party, which was excellent. Had a number of visitors. Booked my January vacation (Mexico, yay!). Worked like a fiend. Stopped going to the gym (just too damned busy). Got to the cottage. Finished my first pair of socks. Had a photo chosen for Schmap (see the widget on the bottom right - check out BCE place). Spent too much money. You know.

So anyway, just a quick check-in.

They Might Be Giants at the Mod Club

Just got back from seeing They Might Be Giants at The Mod Club. What an excellent show!

Met with my long-lost friend LB, who I haven't seen since the store we ran at The Eaton Centre (Outback Jack, anyone remember that?) closed way back in 1996. Ah, the wonders of Facebook. She's still tons of fun. Also met up with M&D, who I also hadn't seen for a while. Also fun.

Okay, so the opening band was Young Rival. They were okay. Nothing fabulous, but a better opener than that stupid Fiction Plane were. More suited to the music style, more fun - not amazing, but pretty good.

Main Event: TMBG. What can I say? They were amazing! Played lots of stuff off the new album and lots of oldies, got a phonecall from the grave mid-show (Eleanor Roosevelt, I think), and actually played Fingertips, how wacky is that??? I bought a Music For Anteaters t-shirt at the show - I would have preferred a Mesopotamians shirt, but I think they had trouble getting stuff past customs or something. I still might order one from their site.

Oh, and the pix I took from the gig turned out amazing - visit my Flickr set to check 'em out!

- rescued from Draft purgatory -

The Police at the Air Canada Centre

Just came back from their first night at the Air Canada Centre. They were quite excellent! We had some pretty good seats I think, but it's a damned huge venue!

They did every relative hit except Spirits I think, plus some others I wouldn't have thought they'd do. No Bring On The Night though, which is too bad. Did some reworking of a couple of tunes, mostly it worked except in one Sting went a wee bit jazzy, which is good elsewhere but has no place here.

Stewart had the most fun. And it showed, he really does have boundless energy. He had a great kit behind his main one, with kettle drums and cymbals of every description and a huge gong, every time he went between the two sets the audience went nuts, as did he!

Andy's getting old but damn, he can still play. Sting's voice is much better than it was at the beginning of the tour too, and he's still sexy. Yes, I know he's an old man, but still.

Sting's son is kinda lame though. I mean, the first couple of songs his band did ("Fiction Plane"), and the second last, were kinda okay, but the rest of the time they just sounded like kids in a garage who thought they were really big shit. When he sings you can really hear his Dad when he hits higher notes, but for the rest of it he sounded more like Eddie Vedder.

Oh, and the blatant cash grab thing annoyed me. $50 for a concert shirt? Gah.

(I got a $40 one, still too much but I couldn't help myself. Plus a tote bag. Gah.)

So what else... um, got The Peacekeeper Wars on DVD, plus The Else, the new They Might Be Giants CD, in preparation for their gig... tomorrow!

- rescued from Draft purgatory -

Leon Redbone's here!

So a week or so ago J&P&A were in to visit, and as we sat across from Massey Hall having lunch I saw Leon Redbone listed on the playbill - omg, I didn't know he was coming! So when we got home I went online and got the tix *phew*

So in the meantime, I went to Tavern, spent too much money - DVDs (Shirley Valentine; Kiss Kiss Bang Bang; Lucky Number Slevin; The Commitments Special Edition) and a new fishtank to sequester the evil goldfish - and sucked at darts. Well, didn't suck completely, but still.

So yes, Leon. Well, really he was only opening up for Madeleine Peyroux - who wasn't really all that exciting, she has a nice voice and all but I could have lived without seeing her. Leon though - ah, he's wonderful. But he didn't look well, I think he's been ill to be honest. He's not the youngest man anymore of course. But he's still wonderful. Well, it was a long trip for him I'm sure, he won't fly anymore - he survived an airplane accident a while back, so it's understandable.

- rescued from Draft purgatory -

Disappointment at BMO Field

L and I went to see Toronto FC play the Red Bulls tonight out at BMO Field.

Well, first of all, I’m always disappointed when something gets a corporate sponsor-type name, but there are far worse names BMO Field could have (I mean, if you say it fast, it just sounds like a nickname for your brother or something).

Anyway, the seats were great (let’s face it, they’re all good there) and the view was fantastic, and there was a lot of action, but the same thing happened tonight that happened last time L and I went - early-ish in the first half Toronto FC scored, there was much joy and happiness. Then shortly afterwards the other team scored. Then, pretty quickly, they scored again. And no more scores were made.

Oh sure, there was lots going on, but it was mostly the various refs either completely missing things that happened right in front of them, or penalizing TFC for things that didn’t happen (admittedly a couple of things did, but nothing like what we got called on) while allowing the other team to get away with everything short of armed robbery.

Now I realize I’m going to be biased on this, but I really do think they’re overcompensating in trying to prove they’re not going to favour Toronto. It really isn’t fair.

I’m not blaming it all on the refs though, TFC is a new team and they still need to learn how to maintain their performance throughout the entire game, they seem to lose steam halfway through. But they’re new, and I think by the end of the season they’ll be much better.

Geez, anyone would think I’m starting to like the footie.

Oh, and I sucked at darts lastnight. Mostly due to not having played for a while, but at least a little bit because I can’t find my glasses - have you seen them?

And suddenly it’s June!

Man, the weather has been nuts - bright and sunny, then storming, then muggy, then cold...

Summer darts starts tonight, yay! I’m a bit worried that I will suck as I haven’t really played in over a month, but I sucked total donkey last year when I first started so that’s okay. Oh, and I won a gift certificate to Mayday Malone’s from Torontodarts.com!

The last week has been pretty good - last Monday I saw my dentist, and he’s a bit worried about a spot on the back of one of my teeth (argh, could this be my first cavity?) BUT he’s started giving out electric toothbrushes, which rocks! The rest of the week was hectic, but Thursday I bought Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and watched it with L and Xog so we’d be prepared for Friday, when we went with T to see Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End - which, btw, was a lot of fun but quite long.

Had a meeting before the movie on Friday with a financial person from my bank - she wanted to do a ’financial checkup’ on me (i.e., she wanted to see if she could get me to sign up for stuff) which started late, had me running back and forth between two banks and ended with her trying to trick me into thinking I was breaking the law (’no, you have to have a power of attorney, it’s the law’ ’hang on, are you actually saying I’m BREAKING THE LAW by not having one set up?’ ’oh no, not that serious, hahahah...’). I really doubt I’ll be dealing with her when I finally decide to get a mortgage.

Saturday I wanted to be productive, so I pulled all the tupperware and baking pans and pots and stuff out of the bottom cupboard and cleaned and organized them all, I felt like an adult! Then I went off to The Pilot in Yorkville to join J&R and some others for a reception of sorts, which was bright and sunny and fun (L joined us after the Toronto FC game, which I think we won).

Then on Sunday - you guessed it - another enormous family get-together! This is what I get for dating an Italian - not that I don’t like his family of course! I do, they’re all very sweet and fun, but I’m just not used to this social whirl and I’m getting exhausted! A very nice day though, and I think I’m starting to get the hang of pacing myself with these never-ending meals...